Republicans sue again to demand records in NJ noncitizen voting blunder

The Republican National Committee has sued New Jersey’s top election official and five county election supervisors for withholding voter records it says are public under federal law.

The committee on Tuesday accused Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, who oversees elections as secretary of state, and election administrators in Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union counties of violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

The committee filed requests for 13 categories of voter records on July 31, 10 days after Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) revealed the state registered thousands of noncitizens to vote and that about 300 of them cast ballots. Sherrill has blamed a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission, where customers can be automatically registered to vote.

But Caldwell’s office didn’t respond for six weeks, and then largely denied the requests, the lawsuit charges. The county election officials also failed to provide most of the records sought, it says.

Under the National Voter Registration Act, records relating to the “implementation of programs and activities conducted for the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters” are considered public records that must be disclosed upon request, the lawsuit says.

Joe Gruters, the committee’s chairman, noted that Sherrill admitted the state goofed in registering noncitizens.

“Now, election officials are hiding the records that would tell voters how it happened,” Gruters said in a statement. “The RNC won’t stand for it. Garden State voters deserve the truth, and we’re taking these left-wing officials to court to demand answers.”

The committee wants a federal judge to declare New Jersey election officials in violation of the National Voter Registration Act and compel them to produce the records sought. Tuesday’s lawsuit is the second the committee has filed seeking answers about the goof. They also sued in state court in early July before Sherrill went public with it; that case remains pending.

A spokesperson for Caldwell did not return a request for comment.

Steve Sigmund, a Sherrill spokesman, blasted the latest lawsuit.

“While Gov. Sherrill is working to clean up the voter rolls and protect our elections, Republicans are still following the same Trump MAGA playbook,” Sigmund said. “Gov. Sherrill has made clear that the Trump Administration should not have access to the personal identifiable information of millions of New Jersey voters, and the courts have agreed.”

The Trump administration sued Caldwell earlier this year seeking unredacted voter records under the National Voter Registration Act, but a federal judge dismissed the case in July, saying federal law that mandates election officials turn over some types of records to the federal Election Assistance Commission upon request does not extend to New Jersey’s digital voter registration system.

Michael Symons, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said the office is “committed to ensuring that our elections are free, fair, and secure.”

“Our election officials undertake extensive efforts to maintain voter rolls and ensure all eligible voters, and only eligible voters, can vote. We look forward to defending our elections against this partisan lawsuit, which is a fishing expedition for the personal information of New Jersey voters,” Symons said.

The records Republicans sought include policies and procedures governing New Jersey’s maintenance of voter rolls; lists of voters removed and why; and communications between state agencies identifying registered voters discovered to be deceased, relocated, and not citizens.

Besides the committee, the lawsuit’s plaintiffs include Sen. Anthony Bucco, the state Senate’s GOP leader, and Rep. Thomas Kean, a Republican now in a tight race to retain his congressional seat in the 7th District.

They’re represented by two lawyers from a Virginia-based firm founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who President Donald Trump appointed to head the Department of Justice’s civil rights division. Dhillon, who’s also a former Republican National Committeewoman, has claimed noncitizens’ votes “cancel out” Americans’ votes and vowed to prosecute anyone involved.

Claims of widespread noncitizen voting have been repeatedly debunked — a Republican former elections official from Arizona testified to a House subcommittee hearing last week that such claims are exaggerated — but recent polling suggests the allegations are working to erode public confidence in the electoral system.

Besides Caldwell, the county election officials named as defendants are Debra M. Francica, elections superintendent in Bergen County; Maryanne Kelleher, elections superintendent in Hudson County; Scott Snyder, commissioner of registration in Middlesex County; Anthony J. DeCicco, commissioner of registration in Somerset County; and James Foerst, commissioner of registration in Union County.